Recommended Maintenance Intervals

This is my first diesel and I plan to keep it for the long haul. What do long term diesel owners recommend for maintenance?

I've heard:

Synthetic oil change every 10K
Timing belt replacement every 60K
Glow plug replacement every 50K

Any other recommendations? What about other fluid (brake, transmission, etc)replacements?

Thanks in advance.

I just took my 2010 X5 35D in today for its first oil change at 2500 miles to change the break in oil. I plan on keeping mine as well for a long time so I'm being paranoid. The other thing that seems a must is transmission fluid / filter changes at 50k. From reading other posts it seems to be the weakest link in the driveline.

I have a pet peeve with BMW's recommendation for oil changes. Any turbo charged engine, BMW or not, should not go anywhere over 7500 miles, and that's pushing it. The heat generated from turbos is extreme even at moderate speed.

On my VW tdi I have a boost and EGT gage, on the steep part of Turnagain Pass between Soldotna and Anchorage, I've seen 16psi and 1450*f sustained. How much of that heat gets transmitted to the oil I don't know.

I don't know why OEM don't install boost / EGT gages especialy on turbo-diesels.

Is anyone doing oil analysis on their BMW, that's the definite answer as to OCI.

Originally Posted by Marine5302

I have a pet peeve with BMW's recommendation for oil changes. Any turbo charged engine, BMW or not, should not go anywhere over 7500 miles, and that's pushing it. The heat generated from turbos is extreme even at moderate speed.

My computer had me change it around 6500 and second will be around 10k so 3500 miles on that oil. I dunno where people get 10-15k intervals from becase seems like even the guys doing almost all freeway are lucky if the computer has them do it at 10k let alone more miles.

Does this car have a timing belt? Changing one under 100k miles is foreign to me since all my other cars with timing belts those get changed around that.

Glow plugs being changed out as a service item is foreign to me as well. My Mercedes needed glow plug work after 185k miles and over 20 years of use. One could argue if it was just old age or use that did it. My truck still has the original ones without issue at about 140k miles.

@ almost 7k, the car is telling me at least another 7k for the oil change.

I am at 3k miles today, I am doing an oil change this week. I drive a lot of stop and go miles in DC traffic. I am curious how "clean" my oil will be.

Originally Posted by dkj3113

This is my first diesel and I plan to keep it for the long haul. What do long term diesel owners recommend for maintenance?

I've heard:

Synthetic oil change every 10K
Timing belt replacement every 60K
Glow plug replacement every 50K

Any other recommendations? What about other fluid (brake, transmission, etc)replacements?

Thanks in advance.

i think 10K OCI is probably conservative enough.

you don't have a timing belt- it uses a chain. there should be chain stretch specs that would dictate the change interval. Probably more like 200K mi, no way is it 60K mi. I'd replace the waterpump and coolant at the same time.

glow plugs will throw a code if there is a problem. replace as necessary. remember that they are not needed for every cycle like a gasser

brake fluid 2x/yr per BMW.

serp belt every 100K mi

"lifetime" ATF- i'd replace every 100K mi. same with PS fluid and gear oil.

Originally Posted by Marine5302

I have a pet peeve with BMW's recommendation for oil changes. Any turbo charged engine, BMW or not, should not go anywhere over 7500 miles, and that's pushing it. The heat generated from turbos is extreme even at moderate speed.

plenty of VW turbo diesels have used OCI of 10K mi and beyond for hundred's of thousands of miles. That's with a ~5 qt sump. The BMW d's have an 8.5 qt sump, right? I'd be good with 10K mi unless used oil analysis suggested otherwise.

Originally Posted by Stugots

@ almost 7k, the car is telling me at least another 7k for the oil change.

Which makes me wonder again how it determines the figure. For example Chris in another thread posted up when it said to do changes on his car and if I remember the amounts correctly not one was all that close to 14k miles. I'd think a car that spends most of it's life cruising down the highway would get the longest interval from the computer. Mine gives me a long interval then just starts dropping and dropping the interval on me. I do not mind since not paying and too many oil changes never hurt anything. Regardless 7500 mile intervals does not seem extreme to me but of course my Ford using a synthetic blend says for lite duty use to change at 7500 so I am just used to that interval.

Originally Posted by lsupoppa

I am at 3k miles today, I am doing an oil change this week. I drive a lot of stop and go miles in DC traffic. I am curious how "clean" my oil will be.

Don't get alarmed when it is black.

Originally Posted by lsupoppa

... I am curious how "clean" my oil will be.

are you going to determine this based on UOA? as snipe mentioned- it WILL be black (if it isn't then something aint right!)

Originally Posted by Snipe656

Don't get alarmed when it is black.

I'm glad you guys are warning me it will be black...never had a diesel before, might have worried about nothing...

Originally Posted by lsupoppa

I'm glad you guys are warning me it will be black...never had a diesel before, might have worried about nothing...

Black is Beautiful
it means that your soot is being suspended by the oil and not rubbing the finish off of the various internal mechanical bits of your engine

Originally Posted by Snipe656

Glow plugs being changed out as a service item is foreign to me as well. My Mercedes needed glow plug work after 185k miles and over 20 years of use. One could argue if it was just old age or use that did it. My truck still has the original ones without issue at about 140k miles.

It shorten the glow plug heat-up time, BMW is using 6 volt glow plugs, but putting 12 volts to them. BMW claims that since it is such a short-time it will not effect their life, but it makes me wonder...


P.S. Before anyone says "NO WAY," read this presentation:

http://www.osti.gov/bridge/purl.cove...3O5pK3/native/

Originally Posted by Penguin

It shorten the glow plug heat-up time, BMW is using 6 volt glow plugs, but putting 12 volts to them. BMW claims that since it is such a short-time it will not effect their life, but it makes me wonder...


P.S. Before anyone says "NO WAY," read this presentation:

http://www.osti.gov/bridge/purl.cove...3O5pK3/native/

Well I still wait until if/when one needs to be replaced over just replacing them at some set usage point. I know a lot of people running around with several hundred thousand miles on their diesels and never had to touch the glow plugs. I'd hope even with a shortened lifespan these are still good for 150k miles or so. What worries me is how long will the transmission last, I am hopeful to get 150-200k out of that then call the car "done"

Originally Posted by Snipe656

Well I still wait until if/when one needs to be replaced over just replacing them at some set usage point. I know a lot of people running around with several hundred thousand miles on their diesels and never had to touch the glow plugs. I'd hope even with a shortened lifespan these are still good for 150k miles or so. What worries me is how long will the transmission last, I am hopeful to get 150-200k out of that then call the car "done"

I would agree that they probably should not be replaced at a set mileage, as one assumes their duty cycle depends upon the climate in which the vehicle is used, and therefore would vary a lot between vehicles driven in Florida and vehicles driven in Duluth, MN.

My first diesel. I noticed that more oil is in this motor than most North American v8's. twice its size. Is that why the service interval is higher. Just curious if with more oil capacity it takes longer for oil to wear down.

Originally Posted by robster10

Just curious if with more oil capacity it takes longer for oil to wear down.

Yes.

All other things being equal in an engine, if you have twice the oil capacity any given ounce of engine oil is exposed to the shearing action and hot spots of the engine half as often (roughly speaking). And if you have twice the oil capacity, the oil can hold twice the quantity of particles in suspension, and the additives in the oil can neutralize twice as much acid, etc.

As I said, there are a lot of other factors which fine-tune the above (imperfect mixing of oil in the oil pan, etc.) so it isn't exactly a linear response of "twice the oil twice as long," but the general principle hold true.

Originally Posted by Stugots

@ almost 7k, the car is telling me at least another 7k for the oil change.

My driving is very steady and predictable last 3 1/2 years. Commuting approx 75 miles every day with a 60/40 mix of Hwy/Cty. My OCI have been pretty well fixed at every 13k.

Now at 52.5k I am doing used oil analysis this interval just to see. Did one at 1k and will do more at 5k, 9k and then at 13k when oil will be changed again, so will have a nice trend to see what is going on.

Based on the data provided by Blackstone I have yet to see any reason why our oil needs to be changed prior to the OCI prescribed by the OBCD.